Familiar of Zero: Promised Land
by Generic Zero
Summary: 5 years after Saito and Louise had a particularly explosive fight a messenger from a faraway land known as 'Serui Virtutem' arrives to speak with the Pope of Romalia. That messenger is the former Gandalfyr, Saito Hiraga. SaiLou fans, this story is probably not for you.


A/N: The first of my Fanfiction I decided to post upon this site. At this current moment I have no real drive to continue writing this so I'll just post the two chapters that I have done when I have time. I'd like to note that the very first portion of this scene, before Saito makes his appearance, was written a few years ago whereas the rest of the story was written within the past few months. Hopefully there's not a noticeable quality difference. I'll also note right now that Louise is portrayed rather... negatively, not too badly and I at least hope not unreasonably.

* * *

Chapter I

The Messanger

* * *

Mismatched red and blue eyes danced across the antechamber of Romalia's palace church. They belonged to the Windalfyr, Julio Cesar, the pope's familiar. He was bored as he found himself often these days. Nothing major had happened for quite a while now. No wars, no conflicts, no major hidden agendas, there was nothing but boredom. Now he wasn't a thrill seeker per say but frankly nothing interesting happened anymore.

It did not help that the pope himself had restricted his access to his only remaining hobby by announcing what he was to the whole world. So what if he was the Windalfyr? Now every woman in town avoided him as best they could. Even the nightly streetwalkers avoided him like the plague of 3376. Having it known that he could subtlety manipulate a man's mind tends to make people reluctant to be near him…

Thus he found himself sitting on one of the numerous benches in the pope's antechamber watching people go to and fro completing their duties in an orderly manner. There were no visitors yet that day and it was so late in the afternoon that he severely doubted anyone would have business with his master. Well, except the man's wife but…

The pope…? How long has it been since his grand vision was ruined by the bumbling pinkette? A little over 5 years actually… That idiot, how exactly could make someone that madly in love with her to run away, never to be seen again. That foolish Gandalfyr even quite literally died for her!

Regardless, the loss of the Gandalfyr and the Myozunitonirun meant that the pope had to abandon his plans for his crusade. Can't start a holy war with only one void familiar now can you? The fact that one void mage was infamously sadistic to nearly everyone around her and the other was an elf herself was just insult heaped atop injury.

And all remaining void mages remained inert upon their own personal thrones of power and worship. Oh yes, worship. When had that started anyway?

…That's a good question actually, he didn't really even know. Nevertheless, Vittorio was forced to allow such cults due to pressure from both the citizenry and the nobility. Of course, Julio knew that his master absolutely loved the fact that he had entire sub-religions devoted to the ground he walked on. Julio also knew that Vittorio definitely did not want anyone to know about that.

With a bemused chuckle Julio looked up to see the newest entrants to the room. And he promptly did a double take.

The very first thing Julio noticed concerning the new arrival was what the somewhat simple fact that his arms were completely encased in what seemed to be golden armor. Both the pauldrons upon his shoulders and the gauntlets that covered his arms were apparently wrought from gold. Despite this they were not apparently decorative and were instead rather practically designed, in fact the only particular oddity he could spot were the small vaguely familiar symbols that ran along the edges of the plates. He could tell that they covered something else, the sleeves from his rather large coat was his immediate guess.

The coat itself was a long black coat that extended down to the man's knees. It took him a few seconds to realize that the coat was actually made entirely from dyed fur and that the tuffs the rimmed the neckline and hemline of the coat were actually just undyed portions of the fur. Similar to the gauntlets the edges of the coat appeared to have the same series of symbols printed along the absolute edges of the coat. Aside from the fact that the coat was obviously very expensive, albeit not really in style outside of Germania, nothing else about it was very noteworthy. Since the coat was worn open Julio could see the rather simple red nobleman's fineries that he wore underneath.

The fineries were properly tucked into the pants he wore which were extremely simple themselves and notably the exactly same kind of loose pants that was commonly issued to most footmen in the Germanian army, although they were made from black cloth instead of the more common tan that Germania usually used. Discretely looking down Julio noted that the pants themselves were tucked into a pair of full greaves of the exact same style as the gauntlets.

But what really grabbed his attention was the man's coal black hair and especially his face which bore very, very foreign features. Although it had been a total of 5 years he could easily identify the man solely due to the absurd rarity of the man's features. It was clearly Saito Hiraga, former familiar of the bumbling excuse for a noblewoman Louise de la Valliere. Looking for confirmation he called to him, "Saito, is that you?"

The man reacted somewhat exactly like he had expected him to, he turned to face him immediately and raised an eyebrow, although he noted that his reaction came much faster than he had expected. After a moment that Julio later realized consisted of Saito trying to remember who he was Saito responded with a simple delayed, "Oh, hey Julio. That's right you were from Romalia weren't you. Surprised to see you here though did you need to see the pope for something or another?"

It took Julio roughly 5 seconds to realize that Saito had left literally _just_ before the trip that he was supposed to take with Louise all those year ago where he would've learned about Julio, and in fact his own, exact position in the church hierarchy. In the end all Julio managed to do was utter an awkward no in response before smoothly transitioning into the question that near everyone had been asking for the longest time, "Saito, where exactly have you been…?" noticing the odd look that passed over Saito's face he continued, "I mean you've obviously been doing quite well for yourself and everyone, literally everyone, has been looking for you since you left."

"Well you see that's a long story…" Saito moved to scratch his own head, an action Julio remember he commonly did when uncomfortable, but clearly realized halfway through the action that he couldn't really do that with gauntlets on his hands, "Can you perhaps wait until after I speak with the pope about that one."

Julio chuckled, "I'm his assistant and 'personal guard,' I'd be in the room anyway. Follow me."

For a brief second Saito seemed surprised but in the end just shook his head before saying, "This shouldn't really surprise me. I mean according to rumors I heard on the way over Tabitha became Queen."

Julio laughed before moving to lead the way, "Yeah she did actually." Noticing that Saito had indeed started following him he continued, "In fact just about everyone you used to hang out with became rather famous."

"R-really?" Saito stuttered slightly,

"Indeed, Guiche's the captain of the Knights of Undine nowadays and a general in his right, the knight's themselves became rather famous war heroes in the war with Gallia four years back. Louise is still the Princess of Tristain. Although, she isn't very popular for reasons you can probably guess."

"A 'little' on the violent side?" Julio noted how heavily he stressed the word 'little' in that sentence and took it for confirmation as to why he ran away.

"You don't know the half of it, there are already accusations that she's a murderess. Don't get me started on that whole 'bathing in blood' rumor that's been going around." Saito's only response was a chuckle, "Anyway, your former maid, Siesta I believe her name is, her family is the richest non noble family in Gallia. Kirche ended up marrying the current king of Germania if you could believe it. Even Tiffania got herself a cult."

"Oh, wow." Saito commented curtly, "But Gallia? Why did they move there?"

"After 3 wars in a relatively short amount of time Gallia somehow manages to still have the strongest economy on any of the nations, only Germania comes close." Julio off handedly responded.

For a few seconds all that could be heard was the heavy footfalls of Saito's metal boots and the light steps of Julio's fine shoes on the carpeted stone corridors of the central palace church of Romalia. With an amused shake of the head Julio once again broke the silence, "You know, you're much calmer that I ever remember you being."

Saito laughed in response, "Yeah, I've been working on that. Too impulsive for my own good sometimes you know."

Julio shook his head, "You acted like the most famous of ancient pre-gandalfyr heroes back then. I thought it was quite fitting all things considered."

"Heh, yeah, Serui told me that all the time."

Julio quirked an eyebrow at the somewhat odd name, "Serui?"

"You-" Saito started as if automatically but stopped himself, "No you wouldn't know who he is would you. He's my best friend, I've been in his care for the past 5 years."

"Ah, he must be quite rich then. I'd imagine that armor must cost a lot, let alone the coat." Julio commented.

"Not nearly as much as you'd think…" he responded awkwardly.

Julio did not stop as he pushed his way through the double doors of the main meeting chamber of the pope. He did not stop even as he moved to exit through the back door of the room from which the pope would exit, "Wait here, his Highness will be with you shortly."

Breaking out into a faster pace Julio reached Vittorio's main chamber in the span of at most 45 seconds and in the process of throwing the door open managed to make the man himself jump in his chair and almost drop his book. Realizing of course who had just burst into his room Vittorio near instantly relaxed back into his previous normal position. The tall blond form of Pope Vittorio wasted no time in raising his question however, "Julio? What's the matter?"

"it's Saito, he's back." Julio said bluntly

The pope blinked taking a few seconds to let the words sink in, "The Gandalfyr…?"

"Yes."

Vittorio blinked again still processing the information, "The same one we've had literally everyone looking for for the past 5 years just waltzed into the front doors. Without anyone giving him a second glance."

"He probably got a lot of second glances." Julio smoothly commented with only the barest hints of sarcasm, "He always was kind of attention grabbing after all."

Vittorio stared for a few seconds before simply putting down his book and calmly getting up from his chair. The book, Julio noted, was 'The Life and Death of a Tragic Mage' by said mage's own familiar Azrael Chernobog, a magical tome on which the majority of the knowledge the church has on Birimir was written. The pope shook his head lightly and grabbed the ornate scepter he always did when greeting guests and without another word followed his familiar out of the room.

* * *

"Saito," a soft only vaguely feminine voice began, "How close were you to that guy, anyway?"

"Freud," Saito responded levelly without even turning to look at the speaker whom stood directly next to him, albeit quite a bit shorter, "If your about to say what I think your going to say…"

"W-what," there was a short pause where the mental images no doubt spread across the figure's mind, "Gah, no. Your not hiding something are y-" she visibly shook her head, "I mean, I was just wondering you know. He was so focused on you he never even noticed I was here."

"Shouldn't you be used to this by now."

"I am used to it. It's just that there is no way word of your deeds spread this far, even if it has been five years."

Saito chuckled, "Your assuming I didn't perform such deeds here as well." The other stayed silent, "Come now, it's me were talking about here. How does this surprise you?"

"Well for one, your only twenty two. You would've been, what, seventeen when you…"

"Sixteen, and I personally delayed an entire army for long enough for my own crippled army to successfully flee." Saito calmly stated, "Among other things of course."

It took a few second for the other figure to answer, too stunned by such a seemingly absurd statement. When she did respond though she was anything but stunned, "Who am I kidding, this is you were talking about here Your Grace."

Saito frowned at the title for a second and turned to look at his companion, a pale vaguely childish greenette in an ornate long green dress whom was a foot shorter than him. Over the dress she wore a long vaguely glittering coat, vaguely similar in style to the one Saito wore but in a bright golden color and without the fur. From her general appearance it should've been clear that it was a girl but it's mannerisms and general manner of speech said otherwise.

They stood for a few seconds in silence before Julio reappeared leading around a blond man in a magnificent white gown and extremely distinctive white hat, assumedly the pope. Julio looked vaguely puzzled for a second before he appeared to just accept the new appearance. Saito automatically got to one knee and bowed in near perfect synchronization with his companion who did exactly the same thing but a little slower due to the skirt. That visibly threw Julio for a loop, although the pope didn't seem to notice his guard's confusion as he sat down upon his throne.

"My, my, what a surprise." The pope commented cheerfully, "I never would've expected the legendary missing Gandalfyr would actually show up at my doorstep one day. But where are my manners, my name is Vittorio and I do believe you came to see me this day."

Saito, taking this as his cue, calmly stood up, as did his companion naught but a second later, "While I believe you already know who I am, allow me to introduce my companion; this is my squire, Kiyoshi Algol Freud." He was vaguely aware of how both Vittorio and Julio quirked an eyebrow at the introduction, whether it was from the actual name or the title he couldn't tell. Without even waiting a moment he continued speaking, albeit on an entirely different topic, "But before we get at the topic at hand, a gift." Without another word he reached one gauntleted hand into a large hard to notice pocket on the exterior of his coat and withdrew a medium sized leather-bound tome, black as night yet lightly shimmering in the lighting of the room. He handed it to Kiyoshi who stepped forward and following customs handed it to Julio whom opened the book to inspect the contents.

For the longest time Julio just stared at the book, his jaw dropping more each second before he simply shut it and handed it to his master whom immediately began perusing the book himself, intrigued by Julio's reaction. Julio coughed informally, "That… now I'm really curious, where have you really been all these years."

"Across the ocean to the west." Saito deadpanned.

"This is intriguing." Vittorio calmly noted, "This… thaumatology, am I saying that right, is the perfect compliment to out magic system. Had I not seen this I'd have been more reluctant in believing you."

"So different yet so very similar, no?" Saito noted, "Magic, the creation of miracles, and Thaumatology, the recreation of miracles. Two very different concepts with two very similar uses. Be aware that Thaumatology have a much more varied user base that pure mages."

"I am barely through the introduction and I am already getting that Idea." Vittorio flipped to another page, "I take it there is a reason you gave this specifically to me? The 'commoners' would benefit more from this would they not?"

Saito laughed, "No, no, actually your 'serfs'" Saito noted how Julio raised an eyebrow at such an archaic term but dismissed it, "would have a much harder time using it than your nobility. Thaumatology requires a decent feel for magic first before it can be used to it's fullest. Your 'commoners' have likely not once felt any kind of magic flowing through their bodies and so the basic concepts of thaumatology are lost to them." Saito chuckled before snapping the fingers of his left hand, as odd as that sounded in full plate armor. From it sprung a small flame, barely enough to illuminate a book in the dark, "In truth it is people like us that benefit from Thaumatology the most, people like myself, you…" he snapped again and the flame was gone, "and Louise. Those whom have incredible amounts of magic to use, but a very limited scope of magical abilities to use it for."

It took a few seconds for the absurd implications of that sentence to sink in for both Vittorio and Julio but in the end the one that ended up voicing the obligatory question was Julio, "Are you implying that _you_ are a void mage as well…?"

Saito merely smiled serenely as he answered in a single simple word, "Yes. Whether It was due to my time as Gandalfyr or whether I was actually always like this I'll never kno-" Kiyoshi coughed audibly to get Saito's attention away from the topic and back on the actual reason they were here. Saito himself cleared his throat to get off the tangent he had been about to go on, "Ah, yes thank you Freud. On to the true reason I am here. You see, My Lord would like to open a economic alliance between our nations."

For a second Vittorio looked up from his book with a raised eyebrow and glanced at Julio who returned the glance with a confused shrug of his own. It was when Vittorio looked back at the book, or rather the last few sentences of the books introduction did he realize why exactly Saito had given it specifically to him. Quirking an eyebrow once more he asked the only thing that made sense for him to ask in response, "Was it you plan to come to me or was it this lord of yours?"

Saito's face betrayed no emotion as it easily slid into a visage that both Vittorio and Julio recognized instantly, "I have full command of this expedition. I came to you on my own initiative."

Vittorio returned the stony gaze with a small smile of his own as he slid a bookmark into the book he was holding, "Then let me answer the real question you have for me,_ I_ have no problem with this, however several members of the church hierarchy no doubt will. Gallia and Germania will offer no opposition to the request at all as Germania generally lacks noble blood in the first place and the Gauls have had their nobility and military forces devastated due to a variety of wars they've been stuck in. Tristain, and by extension Albion, will likely be impossible to persuade."

Saito returned the smile with one of his own, "For a scant second there I had started to think that perhaps you were just another figurehead for just another kingdom, but I am glad to have been proven wrong." For some that line would've been seen as offensive, but for the pope, and many monarchs like him, it was a compliment, "But if you don't mind me asking, why exactly would Tristain be so hard to persuade."

Vittorio's expression did not change in the least, "Tristain has been brutally oppressing its commoners as of late, and with the _princess's _support the nobility has begun to outright ignore the queen's position on the issue." He shook his head, "They've been doing so since the war with Gallia. The Louise girl had been tricked into being captured by someone disguised as a commoner asking for a blessing. Since you left she'd already had an inherent dislike of commoners as a whole but when that happened…"

Saito's expression settled into a frown, "I can get the picture." He shook his head lightly before returning to his normal amiable smile, "I seems as if our business is concluded for the day. A delegation will be around next month should you manage to get enough support without jeopardizing your reign, not that I think that it will be a problem for you of course. But I do have a personal question. I've heard that Tabitha, I mean Charlotte, had ascended to the throne. That raises the question however of, who killed King Joseph…?"

The pope hesitated in answering until Julio looked ready to do it himself, "We do not know. I was told that it appeared as if he had committed suicide when he received his brother's will. His familiar verified that much."

Saito seemed to accept it as he turned to leave the palace. His squire, Kiyoshi, was about to do so as well before he hesitated and turned to deliver one last bow before leaving himself, hurrying after Saito as he had gotten a head start. In the end all who were left in the room were the pope and his familiar, both mulling over the unexpected meeting that had just occurred.

"So this is just a diplomatic mission." A voice calmly looked for confirmation in the center of a semi crowded street in the capital city of Tristain, Tristania.

"Yes." A second, annoyed voice responded simply.

"I see." The first voice continued, "So why are there three of us exactly?"

The leader of the group, whom had not spoken yet, stopped on a dime and spun on her heel to send a glare at her subordinates. She was a rather normal height, merely 5'5" and had a rather common eye color, blue, but that was as far as her normalcy ended. Her hair was bone white, which stood in stark contrast to her face, which marked her age at barely older than twenty. At the moment her narrowed eyes seemed to glow as if they were in fact merely shades beyond which a fire burned vigorously. The short tight black dress she wore seemed to have glowing symbols inscribed along its edges, the same was true for her long, otherwise simply decorated, gloves. While the same was not visibly true for long leather boots she wore, it was not much of a stretch to just assume so. Beyond appearance, anyone who neared her suddenly had the primal desire to walk away and could never explain why or think quickly enough to stop themselves as they unknowingly followed the command.

In an instant, realizing that they'd drawn the attention of their leader the other two likewise stopped and shut up instantly. Compared to their leader they were fairly normal, or at least not that noteworthy compared to the first. The one on the left, whom had spoken second, bore an uncanny resemblance to the leader. Notably only her eyes were a different color, red, an abnormally common color in this region. Her eyes also lacked the glow that the other one had. She wore similar style clothing to the other albeit in white, however her boots were about a foot shorter and she wore shorts underneath her split skirt. The other, whom had spoken first, was a fairly short man wearing the same manner of clothes and armor as Saito did when he visited the pope earlier that week. All three of them wore identical black cloaks cut from noticeably fine cloth.

"Sieghart, Aine, fall silent." Two names and two words were spoken with such a brutally cold tone that sent a thousand shivers up both the other's spines. Without another word she spun on her heel and kept walking as if it had never happened, the other two falling back into step a few moments later.

Watching silently from a nearby alley, a pair of women wearing the uniforms of the royal musketeers merely looked at each other. With an unspoken signal they split up, the red head trailing the trio and the other heading the other way down the alley.

* * *

The one who lead the three-man group coughed in a blatantly fake manner to get the attention of the mousy brunette that was serving as the secretary for the Queen's throne room at the moment. Realizing that she was being called the woman shut her novel and straightened her slouch to seem more official as she said, "Is there something you need today, Miss…?"

"Tyranis, Vespera Tyranis." The odd sounding and obviously foreign name elicited a raised eyebrow from the secretary for a split second before the woman quickly lowered in hoping no one had noticed. Vespera had expected such however and did not even bother interrupting her speech for it; "We have an appointment to see your queen today." Calmly she took a rather official looking letter from one of the inside pockets of her cloak and handed it to the secretary who discreetly opened and inspected the letter before handing it back. For a split second she had quirked an eyebrow, no doubt at the signature at the bottom.

"Head on in, I'll alert the queen." The secretary calmly said as she stood up and went to head down the hall. Vespera watched her go until she was out of sight and only then did she enter the throne room of the Tristainian palace.

"Odd," Sieghart noted, "Does anyone else get the feeling that that secretary was hiding something?"

Aine frowned and she turned her head to glare at her compatriot, "Just cause she didn't fall for your 'manly charms,' and in fact didn't even look at you, doesn't mean she was hiding something."

"No." Sieghart had looked ready to start again but Vespera had cut him off, "Actually she _was_ hiding something. Rather well at that." Subtly she glanced over at the nearest guard, whom wore a bight garish uniform, "I was told that the royal musketeers stood guard in here when the queen was in. Those are certainly not the royal musketeers."

Both of the others sent a curious glance at a random guard as well. It was Sieghart who spoke next, "…She's right. The royal musketeers are composed entirely of women aren't they?"

"Correct."

"But then…" Aine began, "who are these guys. They seems to be trying their hardest to stand guard."

Vespera shook her head as she stopped exactly 2 meters from the throne, signifying that she did not know. They stood in silence until the secretary reappeared leading a figure all three recognized in an instant solely from description. On sight the two younger members of the trio slightly narrowed their eyes, the oldest however simply frowned as the pink haired girl took up position directly to the right of the throne and turned to them with the same look of dignified arrogance that the majority of nobles in the country had born at least once.

As the girl seemed to be taking her time to actually speak Vespera took the honor herself, "Excuse me, Princess, but we were told that we would be meeting with the Queen today."

Louise gave no visual acknowledgement of the line at all and simply looked at the three of them as if inspecting them or eyeing up a potential victim. After a 5 second silence, during which the secretary made her leave, she finally spoke, "I am the princess, there is no reason you can not tell _me_ of your reasons for seeing the queen?"

"Actually, princess," Vespera responded in a perfect deadpan, "We were given explicit orders that we are to only speak of this matter directly to the queen, whom we have been that we would be meeting now."

"Very well than." Louise smiled at the comment, a terrible clearly forced smile, "That wasn't what I wanted to see you for anyway."

Vespera gave an equally fake smile in return, "And what is it that you wished to see us for _your highness_? I would be _glad_ to answer any question I can answer for _your highness_."

If Louise picked up on her sarcasm she gave no indication of it, "I have heard that you have information on the whereabouts of one Saito Hiraga. That wouldn't happen to be true, would it?"

Vespera's smile dropped and she transitioned into a look of mock regret, "I am afraid that I do not know the current whereabouts of the Caesar, _Your Highness_," behind her both Aine and Sieg wearily eyed the guards around the room already seeing where this was heading, "I'm _so_ sorry, is there perhaps anything else that you need today?"

Only then did Louise react honestly with an intense frown forming on her reddening face, "You know, Vespera was it, I do not take kindly to being disrespected like you so callously are doing."

Vespera scoffed, "And _**I **_do not take to kindly to someone so callously leading me around and delaying me from my duties to my lord. Is there anything else you need, _princess_, or is that all for this _wonderful_ day?"

For the longest time Louise merely stared wordlessly at the three before her as if trying to comprehend that she'd just been so easily brushed off and for a split second it reminded her of Saito himself all those years ago, "Well, I am _glad_ to have met someone who seems to know him so well. I suppose that it's a good thing that I'll be seeing you around then."

At her implied threat the guards began their advance, brandishing spears and halberds in an exaggerated, wholly improper manner that made it clear that they had no Idea how to properly use the things. Both Seighart and Aine reacted instantly; Aine by drawing a knife from its concealed location inside of her cloak and Seighart by muttering something and slamming his armored fists into each other. Vespera on the other hand merely looked amused as she folded her arms across her chest, "You would dare try intimidate an Imperial knight, _princess_?"

Louise merely narrowed her eyes in response, "Is that a threat I hear, _knight_?"

Vespera honestly laughed, amused at the mere absurdity of the whole situation, or rather the sheer lack of any maturity that was being used in this conversation. "No, no. That wasn't a threat; I am so sorry that it came out in such an easily misunderstood manner. Please, allow me to correct my _failure of communication_ to be rid of the error. What I had meant to say was 'do you really think that a dozen guards who do not even have a clue how to hold their pointy sticks, could possibly in any way shape or form EVER stand a chance against three fully trained mage knights?'"

For several seconds even the guards had stopped in anticipation for Louise's impending meltdown. As she silently stared at Vespera Louise's face cycled through several changes of emotion starting with shock, transitioning to rage, more shock, more rage, and eventually settling into a perfectly serene smile. In the most sickeningly sweet voice any had ever heard her speak she issued her final proclamation, "Guards, kill them."

Vespera, despite the order or maybe because of it, merely grinned an ear-to-ear grin as she reached into her cloak and pulled from it her own weapon of choice, a set of 8 identical daggers, each held between her fingers. Each dagger was ostensibly made of gold and had extremely odd symbols carved into the metal itself. Within a single terrifying second the daggers each simultaneously disappeared only to be found if one scanned the room. Each dagger was imbedded up to its barely existent handle in the skulls of a guard each. It happened so quickly that half of them did not even realized what had happened and had continued their cautious advance until their brains finally caught on that something was wrong, but by then it was far too late. Within an instant of them beginning to fall the daggers tore through their flesh once more, through the other side. Within barely a second they had returned, floating in all their gore-covered glory beside their master already turned to point towards a new target.

By the time the eight guards had had their heads for all intents and purposes explode from their ultraviolent death the other four guards had stopped in abject horror at what they'd just witnessed. Shocked and confused three of them dropped their weapons in surrender and the last found himself disconnected from the world and unable to move to do the same. Louise however got it the worst. Two of the guards that had been targeted had taken up defensive positions in front of her. When the daggers had torn their way out of their skulls the gore had to follow the laws of physics and so to Louise's immense horror she had come to be covered in blood and brain matter. While not exactly her first brush with death it was certainly her most graphic and in fact the closest. Within scant seconds of the occurrence she was left with only one reaction she possibly could do and she took it. Falling in an undignified heap with the loudest girliest shriek she could muster, she fainted.

Vespera just gave a jaunty laugh at it all and sheathed her daggers. Without a word she spun on her heel and casually walked away as if nothing had ever happened. Her companions merely took one glance around the room at the slaughter each and followed her lead only one of them, Aine, being visibly sickened in the least. For the longest time all that could be heard within the throne room was the sound of footsteps upon the floor and the hysterical sobs of the one guard who was too stunned to do any more than that.

On the way out of the building they passed by the one who had tailed them and without even turning her head Vespera spoke to her in a cold highly annoyed voice, "You're a Royal Musketeer then? Please tell the queen to be on time for our next meeting please."

The musketeer said nothing and merely nodded in affirmation. Without another word, the three knights left the palace without any further trouble and soon after left the city in its entirety.

* * *

From the darkness of an unilluminated room two different voices pierced the silence. The first was a youthful fairly excitable voice that carried a certain absolute yet subtle commanding air to it. The other was cold yet not in any harsh manner and was in fact extremely friendly. However at the moment they talked business.

"Saito? Oh Saito, I was just thinking about you. How is your expedition going?"

"It could be going better honestly."

"Oh? What happened?"

"Pope Vittorio was kind enough to give me an outlook at the political landscape of Halkeginia at the current times. Gallia and Germania should not present much of a challenge as Germania already agrees to your ideals, my liege, and I personally know the Queen of Gallia myself. In addition Gallia's Military and Nobility have suffered greatly from their war with Tristain and Romalia four years ago and their two civil wars four and three years ago respectively. The pope has also admitted that he would not object to the treaty."

"That is good is it not?"

"The pope is a far shrewder politician than I had assumed him to be at first, so heads up about that."

"I'll keep it in mind."

"The complications arose solely from the princess of Tristain, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de la Valliere. I've told you of her before however I seem to have underestimated just how much of a problem she'd really be."

"How so?"

"From Vespera's report the girl tried to imprison and kill the group sent to negotiate. Her report hinted that Louise has her own honor guard and might just have far more support within the court than we anticipated. From observation, I do not believe that the political climate of Tristain can last, either the queen will be assassinated or Louise will do something stupid and get herself killed. There are no alternatives; either way the country will suffer a colossal shift in power by the end of the year. "

"I see…"

"Tristain still holds Albion as a dominion and with Louise's mass destructive capabilities, Tristain's highly trained mage force, and Albion's highly trained air force as well as Gallia's military being severely reduced and Germania's military doing a whole lot of nothing I do believe that Tristain does in fact hold the majority of the continent's military power by a rather large margin."

"Oh dear, do you need reinforcements over there? We are not in a current state of war and the Elves are still reeling from the fourth Sato-Elvish war so…"

"I would prefer to get the rest of the order over, beyond that I do not care."

"Is that truly wise? The order is only 500 strong after all."

"I've passed a military grade Thaumatology book off to the pope. If Vittorio is as intelligent as he makes himself off to be I fully expect that he has already ordered copies made and delivered to his Templars. I shall do the same for Gallia when I visit Queen Charlotte."

"I see. Do you have a base of operations set up yet?"

"No, but if all goes well than I shall have one set up after my visit to Gallia."

"I see. Is that all you have to report Saito?"

"Yes."

"Is there anything else you'd like to say?"

"Well, I can't help but notice that news of my name change will be awkward around here."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Well…" The conversation went on for several hours. Not stopping until the early morning hours before even sunlight shone anywhere upon the continent of Halkeginia.

* * *

End of Chapter 1

* * *

A/N: In case your wondering, Saito's full name in this story is Saito Hiraga Caesar. Caesar is a title indicating that he's essentially the personal knight and right hand man of the emperor of Serui Virtutem. What do I mean by awkward? Julio.

That awkward moment when you realize everyone thinks you married the pope's familiar...


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